A FORMER Durham teacher was back in jail this week for possessing indecent images of children - only two years after being released from prison for distributing child pornography.

Gary Anderson, 37, who changed his name from Simeon Hope following his arrest last year, downloaded and stored 37 indecent pictures of children - some of which 'reflected apparent fear or distress in the victim.'

The judge at Derby Crown Court said on Monday: "The public and children need protection from you over a very long period."

Two years ago, Anderson, a former Green Party election candidate, moved from Brandon to Ilkeston, Derbyshire, following his release from prison.

In 2000, at Durham Crown Court, he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for distributing child pornography and storing more than 51,000 indecent images on his computer.

Anderson, who at the time was in contact with children as a supply teacher, had been arrested as part of a police operation concentrating on an Internet paedophile ring.

Officers found 69 child pornography videos and 800 photographs of young girls and boys in the loft at the home he shared with his wife in Willington.

This week, he was jailed for 18 months and banned from ever working with children or keeping a computer with Internet access. He was also ordered to serve an extended licence, once released, of four-and-a-half years, to be controlled by the probation service.

Edward Barr, prosecuting, told the court that Anderson bought a computer from a newspaper advert and asked a man to teach him more about computer technology.

The police were alerted by the man, who found child porn on Anderson's computer.

Officers raided Anderson's home in Ilkeston in July last year and found 37 downloaded pictures. Anderson later told officers he visited such sites because he 'liked children.'

He admitted 12 charges of making indecent pictures and asked for 25 further pictures to be taken into consideration. Another charge of possessing 102 images, which he denied, will lie on file.

Martin Hurst, mitigating, said his latest offences were 'less bad' than his previous conviction.

After Anderson's first offences, his marriage broke up, he was expelled from the Green Party and his career as a supply teacher ended. He was placed on the sex offenders' register for ten years.